How Many Sets Should You Perform Each Week To Increase Strength?

In last week's blog post, I wrote about the importance of protein intake for weight and fat loss. Protein is an essential macronutrient for muscle maintenance and growth. However, protein by itself won't do much for muscle growth unless you combine it with some form of resistance training. Unfortunately for most people, our current way of life doesn’t elicit enough physical stress to strengthen our muscles. We sit behind a desk and work on a computer for most of the day.

A sedentary lifestyle combined with a lack of resistance training will cause our muscles to wither away and atrophy. A decrease in muscle mass will increase one’s risk for gaining body fat. To prevent this from happening, we must increase our strength through resistance training. An increase in strength tends to be associated with an increase in muscle mass (1).

How many sets should you perform each week to increase strength?

To answer this question, Ralston and colleagues reviewed nine studies that compared weekly set volume on strength gain in multi-joint and single joint exercises. Weekly volume is the sum of sets, reps, and load that one performs in a week. The multi-joint exercises in the nine studies were a squat, bench press, leg press, shoulder press, and a lateral pull down. While the single joint exercises were leg extension, bicep curl, and tricep extension.

On average, the subjects performed between 6 to 12 repetitions per exercise at an intensity of 73-85% of their one rep max. The review compared low (LWS), medium (MWS), and high weekly sets (HWS) for the exercises mentioned above. Below you can find the weekly amount of sets each group performed:

LWS ≤5 sets

MWS 5-9 sets

HWS ≥10 sets

The authors found the HWS group to be the most effective followed by the MWS group for strength gain in both single and multi joint exercises for novice to intermediate lifters (2). The LWS group was the least effective for all training ages.

Numerous studies, including the review above, have found workout volume to be one of the main predictors of strength (2,3,4). So there is no need to panic if you can’t lift five times a week. Your workout schedule should fit your schedule and be based on your goals. In fact, even one day a week has been proven to be just as effective as three days a week for increasing strength levels when workout volume is the same (3).

But for most people, it isn’t realistic to perform a week’s workout volume in one day. Plus, by spreading out your training, you will have more energy to push the intensity for each exercise in the workout. Therefore, I recommend performing two to four total body workouts per week to hit your total workout volume.

In summary, the studies above suggest that a moderate to high weekly volume of sets is essential for increasing strength. Remember, there is a dose–response relationship between weekly sets performed and strength gain. More experienced lifters will need a higher weekly volume, whereas beginners will need less volume. Based on these findings, I believe you should perform the following each week: